Just Reflex
by The Letter Atrophy
Summary: Suzaku always knew what he was talking about but never wanted to talk about any of it, which was just the opposite of Gino, who relentlessly worked under the assumption that he just hadn't asked the right questions yet. Gino/Suzaku.


Just Reflex

**A/N:** This was written for the March round of cg flashfic over on LJ-- I'm pizzanotamoney over there, and the requester was karumachan. A-also this is my first time posting anything on this site in over a year, and my first time writing for this fandom, so I'm a little wigged ;)

* * *

If there was a new Knight of Seven, then what would happen to what's-his-face?

Anya said his face was Jeff Eisenberg, and that in order to make room for the new Rounds member, Jeff would be pushed back to Knight of Eight, Nonette to Nine, etc. Gino thought this was the worst way Charles could have possibly decided to do it. Why this, instead of just pushing the previous Knight of Seven up to twelve and Eight through Eleven down one, or dropping the previous Seven altogether and putting the new guy at Twelve (best of all for Gino-- he'd be the Knight of Two!)? This way it sucked to be Seven through Twelve, who he guessed would be dropped off, and all for some new guy.

"He pilots the Lancelot." Anya, who hadn't bothered to look up from what she was doing, had obviously expected this explanation to be plenty. It wasn't.

"Lancelot?"

Facing him this time, "In Area Eleven." He must have looked shocked, because a minute later this was followed by, "Recorded."

Was that the only reason Charles hired new Rounds members anymore? He racked his brain to think of any of Charles's successful men that weren't pilots, and came up empty.

When Jeff complained all the way through the next meeting (sometimes joined by Nonette and Monica), Gino decided he should be mad at the new Knight of Seven. However, he immediately abandoned this decision when he finally met Knight of Seven Kururugi Suzaku.

Anya asked him if he'd ever successfully held a grudge, and he pretended to reset his watch for a good five minutes. "All right, you got me," he shrugged, and punctuated his defeat by collapsing in a chair opposite the Knight of Six. "You didn't tell me he caught Zero! That masked terrorist in Area Eleven everyone's been going on about?"

"I figured you would connect the dots."

Further connections of further dots revealed that Suzaku was always polite, but never happy to see him. Never happy to see anyone, actually, which was a weird characteristic for someone who seemed so... nice. He was smart and suave and always knew what he was talking about but never wanted to talk about any of it, which was just the opposite of Gino, who relentlessly worked under the assumption that he just hadn't asked the right questions yet.

Suzaku was also a tiny person. Gino knew next to nothing of the Elevens (Japanese?), so he had no idea if he came from a whole race of tiny men or if Suzaku was an anomaly. Although he was less of a tower over the Knight of Seven than over Anya, the knowledge that the new recruit was actually older than him made it weirder. Gino knew he towered over absolutely everyone, but it wasn't something he'd entirely gotten used to yet. He was only sixteen, so he hadn't been this tall for long. When his superiors screamed at him for breaking one of their robots, it was easy to forget that he was at least a head taller than them.

He had a cat, too. Suzaku. And was an excellent pilot. Gino wondered once why someone like Suzaku would only be the Knight of Seven, but as soon as his mind stumbled over that name he had stopped wondering. Although he liked to think it was because he, too, was an excellent pilot, Gino knew most of the reason he'd gotten as far as Knight of Three at his age was because if anyone's dad could beat up the Emperor, Gino's could. Numbers, on the other hand, didn't pilot Seventh Generation Knightmare Frames, or capture wanted terrorists, and they certainly didn't become Rounds members. Charles, actually, had beaten up Suzaku's dad-- or at least, Suzaku's dad's country. And that was why he was only Seven.

Racism? Gino kept his head out of that stuff. As sure as he was that he'd fought on Britannia's side of more than a few race-related battles, Gino knew nothing about Numbers or their rights or whether they had any or whether they should have any. Except Suzaku. He knew Suzaku should have rights and knew that he didn't have enough of them. But as little as Gino knew about racism, he did know it wasn't polite to ask about it. Therefore, no, 'Say, do they ever call you by rude names?' would not make a good ice-breaker, although Gino had come this close to asking anyway, once. Because Gino was easily bored, Gino wasn't very good at starting conversations, and damnit, sometimes Gino was curious.

Actually, he still needed a good ice-breaker. He'd talked about the weather, and asked about Suzaku's cat-- he'd learned the cat's name was Arthur, but the conversation had ended pretty shortly afterward-- but nothing was working.

And then, one day, Suzaku started a conversation. Well, technically the conversation had started when Gino had exclaimed, "Hi!" and Suzaku had responded with a distracted smile. But the Knight of Seven was the one who put the conversation on life support, for once, rather than letting it die slowly and painfully of massive organ failure caused by suffocation.

"Why do you always hug me?" Suzaku had asked.

Gino grinned, as always, but had no other immediate response. This was something that required consideration, frankly, as he really had no idea he'd been doing it in the first place. Glancing to the smaller man's shoulders, he discovered that the Knight of Seven was right-- he was hugging him. Fleetingly self-conscious, he loosened his grip but did nothing to change his expression.

Hugging was... affection. It was pity, he supposed, in this scenario, although he'd never thought of it that way before. He'd never thought of it at all before, honestly. It was just natural, he discovered after experimentally removing himself from Suzaku and finding this considerably less natural. Just reflex. Hug, it's better than not. "Because I do?" Too circular. "Why not?" No. "Because I feel like it." All variations on the same oblique answer. Gino watched Suzaku's eyebrows furrow as the other man nodded apprehensively.

And then his expression was suddenly apologetic. "It's not... a problem..." just, you know, awkward? Just wanted to know? I actually kind of like it? (Gino could only guess-- Suzaku never finished the sentence.)

He looked down and realized he was doing it again, then flashed Suzaku a shrug. "Well, whatever then." He positively beamed. "I mean if it's ever annoying you can tell me to stop..." And then it was no longer awkward, because Gino decreed it so. And he decided he would employ this philosophy during future conversations with the Knight of Seven.

It was only awkward if you made it awkward. And Gino would make it _not awkward._

His next conversation with Suzaku was even more successful. It started much the same way as the last one had-- "Hi!", distracted smile, Suzaku said something that made it a conversation and not an _exceptionally un-awkward_ silence.

Only this time, Suzaku asked, "Why aren't you hugging me?" and for a second, his distracted smile was nervous instead of distracted, like he was worried Gino wouldn't pick up on the joke. But he did. It was only a few hours later, after all.

So Gino _fixed_ the problem. Quite forcefully, in fact. "Sorry," he said, in response both to his forgetfulness and the fact that the sudden impact of his arms against Suzaku had caused the shorter man to shift uncomfortably.

"It's fine," Suzaku tried to assure him while still attempting to slide into a more natural position. Finally appearing satisfied, he added, "Either way," glancing up at him this time with a smile that Gino wasn't in the mood to gauge the sincerity of.

The blond pilot was unfazed but wasn't sure how to continue the conversation. He came close to saying, 'So, how 'bout those Fifteens?' but reminded himself, for about the fifth time that week, that it was rude to talk about Numbers in front of... well, Numbers.

"So, those Fifteens today..." except that Suzaku apparently had no problem bringing it up himself.

"Oh, yeah! They were... um." Maybe he should let Suzaku finish that sentence. The Fifteens had been annoying as all hell, but he couldn't say _that,_ and they were so annoying because they put up a good fight, but in case Suzaku was as annoyed as Gino was, he couldn't say that either. Most of them had also been really angry, but that was just irrelevant.

Rather than responding as Gino had hoped he would, the Knight of Seven raised both eyebrows as though expecting the younger pilot to finish his own sentence. Had he not gotten it? Or had he been waiting for this? "Um. Really good fighters." Watching Suzaku's cautious nod of a response, he added, "Which was annoying... but admirable I guess." Well-rounded point of view which he hoped the shorter man would appreciate.

Suzaku had not stopped nodding this whole time, but Gino's latest comment seemed to encourage him. He looked enthusiastic now, instead of cautious, which made Gino feel the same way. "Weren't they? You sure fought back though-- I was impressed! I mean, they really had you backed into a corner."

Gino's laugh was more of a space filler than anything else. "Yeah! I thought I was gonna die!" He felt himself blushing but was more amused than actually embarrassed.

The Knight of Seven laughed too, although only enough to leave Gino wondering if he was just being polite. Then his expression stopped being even remotely comprehensible. Damn, he _had _been waiting for this. "Well, good job. You did pretty much the opposite of die." And Gino seemed to have passed the test.

Suzaku had passed Gino's test a long time ago. Of course, Gino hadn't consciously realized he'd been giving a test at the time, but it seemed Gino hadn't been conscious of much at all. Least of all the movement of his arms from his own sides to Suzaku's shoulders.

Which, when Gino thought about it, were some pretty okay shoulders. The Knight of Seven was about the same physically as every other way Gino could think of. Always nice but never interested. Interest_ing_? Sure! Gino sometimes thought that virtually all of his interest in Suzaku, physically and otherwise, was just thrill of the chase. But Anya said thrill of the chase was normal. Natural, actually, was what she said.

Like their friendship. _Natural,_ Gino would insist when another part of his brain would suggest otherwise. _Not awkward._ And Gino went on to have many conversations with Suzaku, most of which were enjoyable and only very few of which ended prematurely. So far, this was enough to shut up that part of his brain.

It had been mostly this conversation that did it:

"So all this hugging," this time Suzaku actually took the liberty of moving Gino's arm, which had grown unpleasantly sticky against the older Knight's clothes, several inches to the right. "Is there any actual reason you do it?"

No, not really. "No, not really." Well that wasn't true. "Well, maybe." Because as long as Suzaku wasn't asking about it, it made things more natural. Suzaku was Gino's friend, and this was something that friends did. This was just a natural precursor to their every conversation. The hug was what came first. "It's just reflex I guess! It's the first thing I think to do whenever I see you."

"Okay, sure." Suzaku smiled sincerely but sheepishly and asked, "What's the second thing?" Gino was confused, and it must have shown, because Suzaku clarified. "I mean... is there something it's leading up to? Like, do you want me to do something in return?"

Gino had no idea how to answer that.

So Suzaku continued. "Whenever you hug me, I always wonder if you're expecting me to do something." He hesitated. Embarrassed? Man, Gino was right there with him. "Do you want me to return the gesture?"

Well, not exactly. Thrill of the chase, right? "Sure." When you're chasing, you don't want your prey to chase back. "Why not?" What he was saying directly contradicted what he was thinking.

Suzaku, on the other hand, seemed to be thinking every bit as clearly as he was talking. Gino felt Suzaku's arms, decisive yet questioning, encircle him before he realized they should be, and although logic dictated that he should flinch in surprise, somehow, he didn't. The shorter man's expression told Gino that Suzaku, too, knew this should have been _their least awkward moment to date,_ but that didn't stop either of them. Gino's readiness to comply with this surprised him, and he wondered if he should take their interactions a step further, but before he could, Suzaku himself asked, "Do you want me to take this further?"

No. That settled it-- Gino wanted to be the one who took it further. Replacing his arms in _a more natural position,_ the taller man leaned forward and, decisive yet questioning, met cautious lips with the Knight of Seven.

And _pounce!_

See? It was natural. Like hugs.


End file.
